We propose and demonstrate an all-fiber liquid-level sensor using an in-line multimode-single-mode-multimode (MSM) fiber structure. A piece of single-mode fiber (SMF) is spliced to two sections of equivalent multimode fiber (MMF) which are used as both mode splitter and mode coupler. The cladding mode will be excited when the light propagates from MMF to SMF, and then it will be combined with fundamental mode to form a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) when the light propagates from SMF to the other MMF. The liquid level is detected by the selected resonant dips shift of the transmission spectrum. A sensing sensitivity of 264.6 pm/mm is achieved for the proposed sensor with an SMF length of 26 mm. Due to its compact structure, easy fabrication, and high sensitivity, the proposed liquid-level sensor is attractive for practical applications in a variety of fields, such as marine detection and chemical processing.

An optical fiber displacement sensor with a large measuring range for simultaneous displacement and temperature measurement is presented in this paper. We developed a specific transducer based on the piston and hydraumatic structure to realize a large displacement measurement, which combined the large measuring range and high precision into a single sensor system. The spectrum showed two reflection peaks used to compensate for cross-sensitivity in the displacement detection. This displacement sensor can linearly work in a large measuring displacement range greater than 45 mm with a high sensitivity of 0.036 nm/mm. The sensor we reported can be developed for real-time displacement monitoring in many industrial environments such as the mechanical shape or liquid level monitoring.

Optical fiber based SPR sensors have attracted more and more attention due to their unique advantages over the prism-based SPR sensors. A novel fiber-optic SPR sensor with multi-alternating metal layers for biochemical analysis is presented in this paper. Based on the fundamental SPR theory of the fiber optic sensing technology, we theoretically investigated the effects of the existence of alternating layers deposited on sensing region SPR wavelength changes. The emphasis was placed on the numerical simulation of the fiber-optic SPR sensor’s sensitivity which could be affected by its technical parameters such as the metal thickness, number of alternating layers. Results showed that, compared to the normal SPR sensor with the single metal layer, the proposed sensor had a wider detecting range of the refractive index and higher sensitivity, which can find applications in biological analysis.